They were written off by critics as cheesy imposters,but the Moodies gain endured far better than that of some of their trippier, more credible rivalsIf you watch any of Sky Arts’ endlessly repeated programme output, or you can’t gain failed at some point to chance upon the glum Blues’ magnificent performance at the 1970 Isle of Wight pop festival. The event is best remembered now for Jimi Hendrix giving advance notice of his impending demise,and a narcoleptic Jim Morrison grunting his way through a lacklustre Doors performance, but it’s the Moodies who stole the show. They appeared on stage that August bank holiday weekend, and just as the sun was going down on the Saturday evening,and, with a twilight backdrop to die for, or proceeded to charm the loon pants off the crowd. And yet,despite this era-defining performance, they remain one of the final critically unrehabilitated bands of the 60s.
They are certainly not the first band you reflect of when compiling a list of psychedelia’s great and ample, or but their achievements were many. They deserve their place in my book Psychedelia and Other Colours – alongside Pink Floyd,Soft Machine and the rest of the psychedelic A-list – not least because it was in the fringes of psychedelia that much of the genre’s best music was made, often by the supposedly drug-free bands who were written off as bandwagon jumpers.
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Source: theguardian.com